1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print control device, an email transmission device, a print controlling method and a non-transitory computer readable recording medium. The present invention more specifically relates to a technique for controlling production of a printed output with an email print function.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventional image forming apparatuses called as network printers or MFPs (Multi-functional peripherals) having an email print function are known. This email print function is to produce a printed output of a file attached to an email in response to receiving the email over a network. This known technique is introduced for example in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. JP 2005-269422 A (hereafter, document 1), Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. JP 2008-90359 A (hereafter, document 2) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. JP 2009-193547 A (hereafter, document 3).
According to the known technique disclosed in document 1, for example, an email setting a right to access an attachment file which is stored in a print server is forwarded to a user in order to improve security for storing the attachment file contained in the email in the print server.
According to the known technique disclosed in document 2, on an image forming apparatus which sends a print completion notification after the printed output is produced by the email print function, a wasteful printed output is prevented from being produced by sending the print completion notification to another image forming apparatus including the email print function. More specifically, according to the known technique disclosed in document 2, the image forming apparatus does not send the print completion notification to an address which restricts incoming print completion notification registered in advance.
According to the known technique disclosed in document 3, two email addresses of an image forming apparatus are configured. When the image forming apparatus receives an email addressed to a first address, the image forming apparatus produces the printed output immediately, and when receiving the email addressed to a second address, the image forming apparatus stores an attachment file of the received email without producing the printed output immediately.
For emails sent and received under an office environment, they are often sent to multiple users to share information between the multiple users. A first user who is a sender of the email sends to the multiple users and an image forming apparatus including the email print function. The first user is then allowed to send information to other users and also to give an instruction to produce a printed output based on the email to the image forming apparatus.
When a second user who received the email from the first user answers the email, he or she may create an email replying to the email without changing the addressees in the destination field those were in the destination field of the email received from the first user to share information. In such a case, the reply from the second user is sent to all the recipients including the image forming apparatus with the email print function. The printed output unintended by the second user may be produced. In some cases, there are many addresses designated in the destination field of the email received from the first user. In those cases, it is not easy for the second user to check if the address of the image forming apparatus with the email print function is included in the many addresses when he or she creates the reply. If the each of the multiple users replies the email without intending to give an instruction to produce the printed output, the image forming apparatus produces the unnecessary printed output every time it receives the reply, resulting in wasted printing resources such as printing sheets and toner.
This happens not only by sending replies. The first user sometimes creates a new email by copying the addresses in the destination field of the previous email sent and received in the past to send information to multiple users, for example. In such cases, when the first user sends the email without noticing the address of the image forming apparatus is included in the addresses in the destination field, the unnecessary printed output is produced by the image forming apparatus although he or she does not intends to.